


Inside

by luoup (ravenic)



Series: It's All Friends Here, All Love [Platonic Week #3] [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Platonic VLD Week, Storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 11:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12605456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/luoup
Summary: Day 2 Prompt 1: Insidestorms and blanket forts





	Inside

**Author's Note:**

> luoup, back at it again with the late posting. halloween ate me and things are so brainweird that i'm not doing nanowrimo this year, for the first time in six years. 
> 
> so it'll be slow and steady with the platonic week fills. there are so many. but they will happen. 
> 
> enjoy blanket fort adventures. i am tired.

“This is some storm.”

Lance’s mild comment was the understatement of the century.  The storm raging on the surface of Kruxuha would have been impossible on Earth – Pidge had described it as “a Category 15 hurricane,” an unfortunately accurate concept. 

The planet was known for its superweather, but the Kruxuhians – a species called Calthzul – were highly-skilled strategists and weapon-builders, and Voltron’s hope for an alliance outweighed the weather risks.  The Calthzuli were accustomed to their planet’s terrific storms and hardly batted an eye, but the Humans were in awe (and no small amount of concern), and even the Alteans were impressed.  By the time the conference between Voltron and Kruxuha’s two major ruling bodies had concluded, the storm was in full swing, raging strongly enough that even the castleship would be in danger were it to attempt to take off.  They decided not to risk it.  After requesting an extended visit which the Calthzuli almost immediately granted, Team Voltron settled in.  The Castle of Lions wasn’t going anywhere until this weather let up. 

“It is indeed, my boy,” Coran agreed.  This was coming from the man who seemed to consider hailstorms of flaming rocks to be a nice day.  “Now, don’t be concerned, but I believe it might be best to turn off the main power in the castle for a bit, at least until the weather dies down.  We don’t want any strange things going on in the systems, and I think it best to avoid attracting all that lightning.”

So the Paladins gathered in one of the common rooms, loaded down with whatever they needed to get through the next few hours of storm, and Coran and Hunk shut down the central power systems.  Without that base hum, usually not even noticeable to the inhabitants, the castle was strangely silent.  It only made the sound of wind and rain and thunder outside louder. 

Things were mostly fine for a while, each person reading or working on things together in the common room, illuminated by battery-powered tablets or small lights.  But although the castle was in no real danger, the storm was really quite powerful.  The resonating thunder, accompanied by brilliant blinding flashes of lightning, left Shiro wound tighter than a Naxian springvine, and Keith, unused to rainstorms in general, looked more than a little nervous. 

Lance got antsier and antsier, watching people sit around either tense or bored or both, and finally he bounced to his feet.  “Okay, enough.  Sleepover party!”

“What?” Pidge and Allura said at the same time. 

“A sleepover party,” Hunk repeated, catching on to his friend’s idea.  “Everyone go get as many blankets as you can find.”

Hunk and Lance were from ocean towns.  Tropical storms and hurricanes were a part of life, a season just like any other.  Sometimes things got bad enough to evacuate, but often it was just a matter of weathering the storm.  Little siblings were always frightened by bad weather, though, so both Legs were skilled in entertaining and distracting from being scared, even if there wasn’t really much danger.  Nobody could have expected such a thing to come in useful in space, but here they were. 

The rest of the team seemed a bit dubious at first, but once Lance and Hunk explained the concept of a blanket fort to Coran, the advisor was all for it and produced all the possible needed materials seemingly out of nowhere.  Allura dragged her feet for a bit, feeling that she was supposed to be doing something productive and important rather than play, but she couldn’t resist Coran’s excitement and enthusiasm and was soon just as interested.  The others followed as well, doubtful but willing. 

The castleship held more blankets than could ever be used in even the most extravagant blanket fort – and this was _extravagant_.  The kitchen’s hover-plates turned out to be brilliant for making the fort bigger than it could ever be otherwise, which was good because there were seven of them and nobody was very small. 

“Do I really have to do this?”

“Yes, Keith, until I find one more of those plates just… hold still.”

“Can’t you just use a chair?  Why do I have to hold up the blanket?”

“Because… because.  I said so.  Now just stay there!”

…

“Keith?  Are you under there?  What are you doing?”

“Lance said I needed to hold up the blanket fort.”

“You look like the world’s weirdest ghost.  Just use a chair, why is your head the thing keeping the whole blanket up?”

“Lance said…”

“Lance is dumb and so are you.  I can’t believe he tricked you into standing there with a blanket on your head, wait until Hunk sees this!”

“Wait – Pidge, wait!  Pidge, get back here – ack!”

“What’s all this racket?  Number Four, what on Altea are you doing on the floor, I thought you were helping build your Human fabric fortress?”

“… Got tangled up.”

“Indeed you did.  Now come help me get these hoverplates into strategic positions, I am quite excited to see this ‘blanket fort.’  It sounds spectacular!”

Once the fort was finally completed (without Keith as a support pillar this time, although his hair was still amazingly staticky), the group settled in.  Coran was duly impressed by the structure, although he was still struggling to understand the tactical advantage of bedclothes in building fortresses.  They talked and played games, both of Human and Altean tradition.  Each mouse got a sock-nest to sleep in, color-coded of course because duh.   

The still-raging storm outside meant that it was dark from the start, but eventually real night drew on.  Lance and Allura brought food in from the kitchen while Pidge and Hunk wrangled Pidge’s laptop into a movie.  Pidge hadn’t been quite prepared for everything, but she _had_ brought a multi-exabyte drive containing about half the entertainment Earth had to offer with her, which had elevated her to essentially god-status with the other Humans.  They chose a movie that the group had already watched a while back, still reluctant to run through the contents of the drive too fast.  Who knew how long it would be before they could get more Earth things? 

Food acquired, movie ready, they snuggled in to watch.  The castle was dark, lights and machines powered off for safety during the storm.  Inside the blanket fort the hoverplates’ lights were just bright enough to see with and prevent eye strain from the computer’s screen, and all sound was softly muffled.  The rain and wind and thunder sounded miles away, in here.  It was warm. 

The movie was familiar to the Humans and interesting to the Alteans.  If Shiro fell asleep half an hour in, well, nobody was going to complain about that.  Their leader needed all the rest he could get. 

They still talked some, giggling at the movie and carrying on a few quiet conversations.  The blanket fort was like a den, safe and dark and quiet and warm.  They were all together, they were all safe. 

Kruxuha’s storm raged outside, but the Castle of Lions stood strong, impenetrable.  Inside, eleven beings nested in a blanket fort, warm and content. 

The universe could wait. 

**Author's Note:**

> it’s not a superthunderstorm, but it has been snowing for the past two hours, so i understand this nice nesty feeling deeply. 
> 
> now i want to build a blanket fort.


End file.
